The present invention relates to casino table and electronic-format card game. Specifically, the present invention is a casino card game and bonus wager, the bonus wager including at least one bonus holding contingent on both the dealer""s holding and the player""s holding.
Card games such as Poker and Baccarat are well known forms of casino-type games. They provide excitement and entertainment to the players. In these games the players are looking for a game in which they have a reasonable chance of winning their wager and the casinos are looking for a reasonable return for hosting the game.
One such game referred to above is Poker where players play against each other to determine who has assembled the best Poker hand. Poker has many variations which can be broadly divided into two categories: those games where each player assembles the best Poker hand from that player""s cards and those games where players use community cards to assemble the best five card Poker hand.
In Poker games in which players play against each other, the amount which can be won by a player is determined by the amount wagered by the players, i.e. the xe2x80x9cpotxe2x80x9d. The drawback of this form of wagering is that if few players wager to conclusion of the hand or the wagers are small there is no opportunity for the player to win a relatively large amount in comparison to their wager.
There is a need for a game which provides for the player to play their individual Poker hand against a house dealer, which provides the opportunity for the player to win amounts significantly greater than the amount wagered by the player, which does not require the player to make additional wagers during the play of the game to obtain, for example, additional cards as is required in many variations of table poker games and which does not require the dealer to have a qualifying holding of cards for the player to fully participate in the game.
One embodiment of the present invention is a method for playing a casino game using a standard fifty two card deck plus at least one joker which acts as a wild card substituting for any other card. In an alternate embodiment, an electronic device using electronic representations of a fifty two card deck plus at least one joker is used. In a preferred embodiment, two jokers are used.
In the game of the present invention, one or more players play against a dealer. Each player places a base wager on the layout. The player also has an option to make a bonus wager. The dealer or electronic device deals a five card hand to each player and to the dealer. Each player compares his or her initial hand to a predetermined set of automatic winning holdings. Each player with an initial matching one of the automatic winning holdings is rewarded. Optionally, the reward includes paying the player according to an automatic winning holding pay table. A player having an automatic winning holding is excluded from further participation in the hand except to resolve the bonus wager after the dealer""s cards are revealed.
The remaining players have the option to discard a single card and receive a single replacement card. In an optional embodiment, the replacement card is dealt face down and the player is not allowed to examine the replacement card.
A single additional card is dealt to the dealer face down and the dealer""s six cards are revealed. The dealer forms a final dealer hand using the highest ranking five card poker hand possible from the dealer""s six cards.
Each player""s hand is revealed in turn. As each player""s hand is revealed, the poker ranking of the player""s hand is compared to the poker ranking of the dealer""s hand. Standard poker rankings, known in the art, are used to rank the hands. Specifically, the hands are ranked in the following descending order: royal flush, five of a kind, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and high card.
The base wagers are resolved by rewarding players having a hand with a higher poker ranking than the casino""s hand and collecting the base wagers from players having a hand with a lower poker ranking than the dealer""s hand. Payouts of greater than 1:1 may be available for predetermined poker hands.
Bonus wagers are resolved by comparing the final player hands with a predetermined schedule of bonus holdings. The bonus holdings include at least a bonus holding in which the final player hand includes one joker, a bonus holding in which the final player hand includes two jokers, and a bonus holding in which the final player hand includes one joker and the final dealer hand includes one joker.